الملاحظات تحرير

Example: Access Azure Storage using the Azure libraries for Python

  • مقالة
  • قراءة خلال 5 دقائق

This example demonstrated how to use the Azure client libraries in Python application code to upload a file to that Blob storage container. The example assumes you have provisioned the resources shown in Example: Provision Azure Storage.

All the commands in this article work the same in Linux/macOS bash and Windows command shells unless noted.

1: Set up your local development environment

If you haven't already, follow all the instructions on Configure your local Python dev environment for Azure.

Be sure to create a service principal for local development, set environment variables for the service principal (see below), and create and activate a virtual environment for this project.

2: Install library packages

  1. In your requirements.txt file, add line for the needed client library package and save the file:

    azure-storage-blob
azure-identity

  2. In your terminal or command prompt, reinstall requirements:

    pip install -r requirements.txt

3: Create a file to upload

Create a source file named sample-source.txt (as the code expects), with contents like the following:

Hello there, Azure Storage. I'm a friendly file ready to be stored in a blob.

4: Use blob storage from app code

The following sections (numbered 4a and 4b) demonstrate two means to access the blob container provisioned through Example: Provision Azure Storage.

The first method (section 4a below) authenticates the app with DefaultAzureCredential as described in Authenticate Azure hosted applications with DefaultAzureCredential. With this method you must first assign the appropriate permissions to the app identity, which is the recommended practice.

The second method (section 4b below) uses a connection string to access the storage account directly. Although this method seems simpler, it has two significant drawbacks:

  • A connection string inherently authenticates the connecting agent with the Storage account rather than with individual resources within that account. As a result, a connection string provides grants broader authorization than may be required.

  • A connection string contains an access key in plain text and therefore presents potential vulnerabilities if it's improperly constructed or improperly secured. If such a connection string is exposed it can be used to access a wide range of resources within the Storage account.

For these reasons, we recommend using the authentication method in production code.

4a: Use blob storage with authentication

  1. Create an environment variable named AZURE_STORAGE_BLOB_URL:

    set AZURE_STORAGE_BLOB_URL=https://pythonazurestorage12345.blob.core.windows.net

    Replace "pythonazurestorage12345" with the name of your specific storage account.

    This AZURE_STORAGE_BLOB_URL environment variable is used only by this example and it not used by the Azure libraries.

  2. Create a file named use_blob_auth.py with the following code. The comments explain the steps.

    import os
from azure.identity import DefaultAzureCredential

# Import the client object from the SDK library
from azure.storage.blob import BlobClient

credential = DefaultAzureCredential()

# Retrieve the storage blob service URL, which is of the form
# https://pythonsdkstorage12345.blob.core.windows.net/
storage_url = os.environ["AZURE_STORAGE_BLOB_URL"]

# Create the client object using the storage URL and the credential
blob_client = BlobClient(storage_url,
    container_name="blob-container-01", blob_name="sample-blob.txt", credential=credential)

# Open a local file and upload its contents to Blob Storage
with open("./sample-source.txt", "rb") as data:
    blob_client.upload_blob(data)

    Reference links:

  3. Attempt to run the code (which fails intentionally):

    python use_blob_auth.py

  4. Observe the error "This request is not authorized to perform this operation using this permission." The error is expected because the local service principal that you're using does not yet have permission to access the blob container.

  5. Grant container permissions to the service principal using the Azure CLI command az role assignment create (it's a long one!):

    az role assignment create --assignee %AZURE_CLIENT_ID% ^
    --role "Storage Blob Data Contributor" ^
    --scope "/subscriptions/%AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID%/resourceGroups/PythonAzureExample-Storage-rg/providers/Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/pythonazurestorage12345/blobServices/default/containers/blob-container-01"

    The --scope argument identifies where this role assignment applies. In this example, you grant the "Storage Blob Data Contributor" role to the specific container named "blob-container-01".

    Replace pythonazurestorage12345 with the exact name of your storage account. You can also adjust the name of the resource group and blob container, if necessary. If you use the wrong name, you see the error, "Can not perform requested operation on nested resource. Parent resource 'pythonazurestorage12345' not found."

    If needed, also replace PythonAzureExample-Storage-rg with the name of the resource group that contains your storage account. The resource group shown here is what's used in Example: Provision Azure Storage.

    The --scope argument in this command also uses the AZURE_CLIENT_ID and AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID environment variables, which you should already have set in your local environment for your service principal by following Configure your local Python dev environment for Azure.

  6. Wait a minute or two for the permissions to propagate, then run the code again to verify that it now works. If you see the permissions error again, wait a little longer, then try the code again.

For more information on role assignments, see How to assign role permissions using the Azure CLI.

4b: Use blob storage with a connection string

  1. Create an environment variable named AZURE_STORAGE_CONNECTION_STRING, the value of which is the full connection string for the storage account. (This environment variable is also used by various Azure CLI comments.)

  2. Create a Python file named use_blob_conn_string.py with the following code. The comments explain the steps.

    import os

# Import the client object from the SDK library
from azure.storage.blob import BlobClient

# Retrieve the connection string from an environment variable. Note that a connection
# string grants all permissions to the caller, making it less secure than obtaining a
# BlobClient object using credentials.
conn_string = os.environ["AZURE_STORAGE_CONNECTION_STRING"]

# Create the client object for the resource identified by the connection string,
# indicating also the blob container and the name of the specific blob we want.
blob_client = BlobClient.from_connection_string(conn_string,
    container_name="blob-container-01", blob_name="sample-blob.txt")

# Open a local file and upload its contents to Blob Storage
with open("./sample-source.txt", "rb") as data:
    blob_client.upload_blob(data)

  3. Run the code:

    python use_blob_conn_string.py

Again, although this method is simple, a connection string authorizes all operations in a storage account. With production code it's better to use specific permissions as described in the previous section.

5. Verify blob creation

After running the code of either method, go to the Azure portal, navigate into the blob container to verify that a new blob exists named sample-blob.txt with the same contents as the sample-source.txt file:

Azure portal page for the blob container, showing the uploaded file

6: Clean up resources

az group delete -n PythonAzureExample-Storage-rg  --no-wait

Run this command if you don't need to keep the resources provisioned in this example and would like to avoid ongoing charges in your subscription.

You can also use the ResourceManagementClient.resource_groups.begin_delete method to delete a resource group from code. The code in Example: Provision a resource group demonstrates usage.

See also